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Venice to award John Woo with Golden Lion

Hong Kong director to receive prize Sept. 3

ROME -- The Venice Film Festival said Thursday it would present Hong Kong director John Woo with the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year's festival.

Woo will be presented the prize on Sept. 3 in the festival's main venue, the Sala Grande, in conjunction with the world premiere of his latest thrilled "Jianyu" (Reign of Assassins), which will appear in Venice out of competition.

A day earlier, the festival will screen a newly restored version of Woo's 1989 masterpiece "Dip huet seung hung" (The Killer) and the Korean-made remake of Woo's 1986 classic "Ying hung boon sik" (A Better Tomorrow), completed this year with Korea's Hae-sung Song.

"When watching one of [Woo's] films, you have to forget about judging the quality of the written page -- the stylized sets and the shots have contradicted it and burned it forever," Venice artistic director Marco Mueller said in a statement. "Woo is not interested in the translation of a sequence into images or the mere description of an action: he is interested in the rhythm and the cadences, searching for the exact syllable on which the accent falls in order to render the lyricism."

This year's Venice Film Festival, the 67th edition, takes place Sept. 1-11.